Oil burning tobacco curing furnace and heat distributor



Feb. 23, 1954 J. R. FURTH 2,670, 91

OIL BURNING TOBACCO CURING FURNACE AND HEAT DISTRIBUTOR Filed Jan. 6,1950 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.

' JR.FlLrl'lz BY ATTORNEYS Feb. 23, 1954 J. R. FURTH 2,670,191 OILBURNING TOBACCO CURING FURNACE AND HEAT DISTRIBUTOR Filed Jan. 6, 1950 RR R 3 Sheets-Sheet INVENTOR.

J R. Furllb Feb. 23, 1954 FURTH 2,670,191

OIL BURNING TOBACCO CURING FURNACE AND HEAT DISTRIBUTOR Fil ed Jan. 6,1950 s Sheets-Sheet a INVENTOR.

JRIurZIz 5,2,. A'I'I'OHVEYS Patented Feb. 23, 1954 OIL BURNING TOBACCOCURING FURNACE AND HEAT DISTRIBUTOR Jacob Richmond Furth,

to The Will-Burt Co corporation of Ohio Orr-ville, Ohio, assignor mpany,Orrville, Ohio, 1:.

Application January 6, 1950, Serial No. 137,114

1 Claim. (01. 263-49) The invention relates to the curing of tobacco,and more particularly to a novel type of oil burning tobacco curingfurnace and heat distributor, for installation in a tobacco curing barn.

In the curing of tobacco, the leaves are strung upon sticks and hung ina tobacco barn, where they are subjected to heat for the time requiredto remove the moisture from the tobacco and cure it for use.

These tobacco barns are equipped with heating devices,- which usuallyrequire ducts or flues in or under the floor of the barn, which dues orducts are connected to a stack or chimney for carrying 01f the productsof combustion.

Such heating devices as are at present in use are expensive to installand, since there is a considerable heat loss through the stack orchimney, require a considerable amount of fuel oil to properly cure abarn full of tobacco.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an oil burning,tobacco curing furnace and heat distributor, which is inexpensive toinstall in a tobacco barn and which requires no underground lines orducts and. no chimney or stack for carrying ed the products ofcombustion.

Another object is to provide such a furnace and heat distributor whichmay be quickly and easily mounted within and removed from a tobaccobarn, thus greatly reducing the cost of installation.

A further object of the invention is to provide an oil burning, tobaccocuring furnace. comprising a refractory lined tube, extending horizontally through the lower portion of the barn and having a conventional,electrically operated gun-type pressure burner extending. into the outer end thereof, and a heat distributor connected to the inner endthereof.

A still further object is to provide such a furnace formed of aplurality of lengths of threepiece sections of high heat resistingrefractory liners, enclosed within a. steel casing. 4

It is also an object of the invention to provide a heat distributor forconnection to the inner end of the tubular furnace and comprising ahollow sheet metal drum, having a plurality of radially disposed pipesconnected thereto and extending horizontally across the lower portion ofthe barn, dampers being provided. within said pipes to properly regulatethe emission from each pipe. suitable requirements under the variedditions.

to the varying: prevailing con- Another object is to provide such a.tobacco heat. quantity curing furnace and heat distributor which is soconstructed that it may be operated more eco nomically than conventionalcuring devices, using considerably less fuel oil than is required underpresent practice.

A further object is to provide an oil burning tobacco curing furnace andheat distributor of the character referred to, whichis so constructed.and operated that all visible volatiles of the fuel are consumed in thefurnace, so that only clean heat is passed through the distributor anddirected through the sections of stove pipe and thus distributed evenlythroughout the entire area of the barn, whereby the tobacco is curedclean and without any oily or greasy odor or feeling such as isprevalent with uncontrolled oil burning .curers.

The above and. other objects, apparent from the drawings and'foll'owingdescription, may be attained, the above described difficulties overcomeand the advantages and results obtained by the apparatus, construction,

Fig. 2 an enlarged, fragmentary; vertical secti'onal elevation of thelower portion of a tobacco barn, showing the improved tobacco curingfurnace and heat distributor located therein, the furnace being shownconnected to av conventional, electrically operated gun-type pressureburner; a

Fig. 3* an enlarged: plan sectional view of the tobacco curing furnaceand heat distributor con.- nected therewith, showing: an oil burnerextended into the outer end of the: furnace; and

Fig. 4.. a transverse; sectional. view through the furnace, taken as on'the line 4: -4., Fig, 3.

The tobacco barirshown in the drawings may be of any conventionalconstruction, comprising a floor i0 and: side walls lat, enclosed undera conventional roof (not shown) as; musual andwell known practice Noductsv or fines are: lo-' cated :on,.-or under, the'floor, as: in usualprac tice, nor is the conventional chimney or stack required; forcarrying; oil the products of combustion;

arrangement: and combinations, sub-combinations and parts In otherwords, it is not necessary that any special construction or apparatus beincorporated in the tobacco barn, other than the bare walls, floor androof thereof, in order to install the improved oil burning tobaccocuring furnace 3nd heat distributor to which the invention perams.

The furnace is illustrated generally at l2, and is in the form of a longtube of relatively small diameter, made up of a plurality of tubularsections of steel casing, indicated at l3, each enclosing two lengths ofthree-piece sections of high heat resisting refractory liners M.

The steel casings [3 may be formed of steel sheets wrapped around thesections of refractory liners, as best shown in Fig. 4, the oppositeedges of the sheet meeting, as at l5, and being clamped around therefractory liners by steel clamping bands l6, each having angularflanges I! at its ends adapted to be drawn together as by a bolt [8 andnut 19, for clamping the bands around the casing. One of these clampingbands is located at each joint of the casings, and also intermediate theends of each casing at the joints between the refractory sections 14, asbest shown in Fig. 3.

The outer end of the furnace I2 is closed by an end plate 20, having acentral opening 2| therein to receive the nozzle 22 of the oil burner aswill be later described.

One wall ll of the tobacco barn is provided with a central opening 23,at a point spaced slightly above the floor in of the barn, which openingreceives the outer end portion of the furnace 12, as shown in Figs. 1and 2.

The furnace I2 maybe'supported in horizontal position within the barn,as by piers 24, of brick or the like, as shown in Fig. 2. Upon theoutside of the barn is located a conventional electrically operatedgun-type pressure burner unit indicated generally at 25 using a solenoidfuel unit and having a special 20 degree nozzle as indicated at 22,located through the central opening 2! of the end plate 20 and extendedinto the outer end of the furnace [2 as indicated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.Conventional type, automatically controlled temperature controlinstruments may be used in connection with this burner unit.

The distributor comprises a drum, indicated generally at 2'1, which maybe formed of heavy sheet metal, located upon a vertical axis as shown inthe drawings, and comprising the cylindrical side wall 28, closed at itsupper and lower ends by the top and bottom walls 23 and 30.

This drum has a relatively large inlet neck 3|, designed to fit snuglywithin the open, inner end of the furnace l2, as best shown in Figs. 2and 3, and a plurality of radially disposed, smaller outlet necks 32 arelocated at spaced intervals around the cylindrical side wall 28 of thedrum.

This cylindrical side wall may be formed of one or more sheets or platesthe ends thereof being joined by means of a vertically disposed strip33, welded and bolted or riveted to the side wall plate or plates asindicated at 34 and 340. respectively. The top and bottom plates 29 and3!) may be welded to the upper and lower end portions of the cylindricalside wall, as indicated at 35 and 35 respectively, and the inlet neck 3|and outlet necks 32 may be connected to the vertical side wall as bywelding indicated at 31 and 38 respectively, so that a strong, rigid,airtight drum is thus formed.

- The distributor drum may be supported upon the floor of the furnace asby piers 39, of brick or the like, as best shown in Fig. 2. Radiallydisposed distributor pipes or tubes, indicated generally at 4B, areconnected to the outlet necks 32 of the distributor drum and arehorizontally located throughout the lower portion of the barn, the outerends thereof being open so as to dis tribute the heat from the furnaceevenly throughout the lower portion of the barn.

These distributor pipes may be formed of conventional stove pipesections, as indicated at M in Fig. l. Preferably each line of stovepipe is provided with a conventional damper, as indicated at 42, toproperly regulate the heat quantity emission from each pipe, suitable tovarying requirements under varied prevailing conditions.

The oil burner unit, located on the outside of the barn, is providedwith the conventional fan for drawing outside air to the burner forcombustion, which fan also acts to force the resulting heat throughoutthe entire heating and distributing system, eliminating the need of aseparate fan for that purpose.

Outside air is drawn to the burner not only for combustion but forde-humidifying inside barn atmosphere and for forcing the heatthroughout the entire heating and distributing system, eliminating theneed of separate fans for these three important, individual purposes. Toapplicants knowledge this is the first time this feature has beenemployed. Separate dehumidifying fans. have been used, the commonpractice being to take in cold air through openings in the four walls ofthe barn, near the floor, this cold air absorbing much heat and thusdemanding fuel oil consumption in proportion.

In the operation of the improved tobacco curing furnace and heatdistributor, when the oil burner unit is operated, the flame passingthrough the elongated furnace i2 produces a long narrow hot gas travelcausing the oil to burn at an efficien'cy closely approximating 15% CO2under normal operating conditions.

Upon arrival of the hot gases in the distributor drum all visiblevolatiles have been consumed and the clean heat is directed through thepipes 40 and thus distributed evenly throughout the entire barn area.

It has been found in actual practice that this is not only a veryeconomical furnace and dis- 503 tributor to install, because of the veryeconomical first cost, due to the minimum of materials and equipmentinvolved, but is also very economical to operate as it requiresconsiderably less fuel to cure a barn full of tobacco than by conven-:.tional practice because of the fact that there is no heat loss throughducts, flues, stacks or the like, all of the clean heat from the burnerbeing admitted to the interior of the barn for curing the tobaccotherein.

In view of the elimination of fines and chimney, and reduction in fueloil requirements, and the superior product produced in actual practice,this curing furnace and heat distributor has proven a considerablesaving to the tobacco farmer as compared with the conventional types nowin general use.

Tobacco cured in barns equipped with the improved curing furnace andheat distributor, being superior to the same kind of tobacco cured byconventional apparatus, brings a higher price on the market than thesame kind of tobacco cured under present practice.

I claim:

A tobacco curing furnace and heat distributor for a tobacco barn,comprising an elongated horizontal imperforate tubular furnace adaptedto be mounted upon the floor of the barn with its outer end locatedthrough a wall of the barn and its inner end located substantially atthe center of the floor, said tubular furnace comprising a tubular steelcasing and tubular refractory liners located end to end within saidcasing, a gun type pressure burner unit with fan located outside of thebarn, the burner nozzle extending into the outer end of the furnace, anend plate closing the outer end of the furnace around the nozzle wherebythe burner nozzle provides the only air intake for the furnace and heatdistributor, a distributor comprising a relatively large diameter hollowdrum located upon a vertical axis and communicating with the inner endof the tubular furnace for receiving all of the hot gases from thefurnace, and a plurality of horizontal radially disposed relativelysmall diameter pipes communieating with the drum and receiving all ofthe hot gases therefrom and terminating in open outer ends locatedentirely within the barn, the length, construction and arrangement ofthe tubular furnace and burner unit being such that all visiblevolatiles of the fuel are consumed in the furnace.

JACOB RICHMOND FURTH.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 106,636 Swindell Aug. 23, 1870 285,112 Clawson Sept. 18, 1883815,093 Keeney Mar. 13, 1906 1,728,053 Gill Sept. 10, 1929 2,095,186Gill Oct. 5, 1937 2,216,075 Henderson Sept. 24, 1940 2,342,058 MorrisFeb. 15, 1944 2,505,249 Johnson et al Apr. 25, 1950 2,518,021 Keay Aug.8, 1950 2,551,215 Lytton May 1, 1951 2,611,599 MacCracken Sept. 23, 1952

